Power outage hits up to 5 million in U.S. Southwest, Mexico

By Julie Watson

Associated Press

Posted:
09/08/2011 05:06:50 PM PDT

Updated:
09/08/2011 10:49:00 PM PDT

By Julie Watson

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO -- A major power outage knocked out electricity to up to 5 million people in California, Arizona and Mexico on Thursday, bringing San Diego and Tijuana to a standstill and leaving people sweltering in the late-summer heat in the surrounding desert.

Two nuclear reactors were offline after losing electricity, but officials said there was no danger to the public or workers.

San Diego bore the brunt of the blackout that started shortly before 4 p.m.; most of the nation's eighth-largest city was darkened. All outgoing flights from San Diego's Lindbergh Field were grounded and police stations were using generators to accept emergency calls across the area. San Diego State's football team was waiting on the tarmac, attempting to leave for New York where they play Army on Saturday. Sports Information Director Mike May said via text the chartered plane was expected to take off but he couldn't be reached for further comment.

Parts of Orange County regained power Thursday evening, but officials said most people would remain in the dark through the night.

The outage was likely caused by an employee removing a piece of monitoring equipment that was causing problems at a power substation in southwest Arizona, officials said. The power loss should have been limited to the Yuma, Ariz., area. The power company, Arizona Public Service, was investigating why the outage wasn't contained.

"This was not a deliberate act. The employee was just switching out a piece of equipment that was problematic," said Dan Froetscher, a vice president at APS.

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"It feels like you're in an oven and you can't escape," said Rosa Maria Gonzales, a spokeswoman with the Imperial Irrigation District in California's sizzling eastern desert. She said it was about 115 degrees when the power went out for about 150,000 of its customers.

Public and private schools in San Diego County will be closed Friday as a precaution as area residents cope with a power outage. Officials say they are erring on the side of caution but expect schools to be operating normally Monday. Classes at San Diego State also have been canceled. The university's website said Thursday that students living in dormitories are being given food, water and other supplies. Campus officials were unsure when classes would resume.

In Tijuana, people wandered out of their hot homes into the street to cool off while restaurants scrambled for ice to save perishable food.

In San Diego, the trolley system that shuttles thousands of commuters every day was shut down and freeways were clogged at rush hour. Trains were stopped in Los Angeles, an Amtrak spokesman said, because there was no power to run the lights, gates, bells and traffic control signals.

When a transmitter line between Arizona and California was disrupted, it cut the flow of imported power into the most southern portion of California, power officials said.

Mike Niggli, chief operating officer of San Diego Gas & Electric Co, said, "Essentially we have two connections from the rest of the world: One of from the north and one is to the east. Both connections are severed." He said his 1.4 million customers may be without power until Friday.

Two reactors at the San Onofre nuclear power plant went offline at 3:38 p.m. as they are programmed to do when there is a disturbance in the power grid, said Charles Coleman, a spokesman from Southern California Edison. He said there was no danger to the public or to workers there.

In Arizona, about half of Yuma County had power again Thursday evening after losing it earlier. Yuma County has about 200,000 residents and a little under half live in the city of Yuma.

"It's 113 degrees right now outside," said Yuma city spokesman Greg Hyland, who was sitting in the dark, answering calls.

Capt. Mike Stone of the Orange County Fire Authority said several people were trapped and rescued at the tony Ritz Carlton hotel in south Orange County.

In southern Orange County, the sheriff's department dispatched deputies to busy intersections because traffic lights were out, said John McDonald, a sheriff's spokesman. Outages were confirmed in San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano and Laguna Hills, he said.

Traffic was backed up in some areas, and the Orange County Register reported that fire crews were dealing with numerous calls of people being trapped in elevators.